


Through Rose-Tinted Lenses

by Menoeides



Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Probably takes place sometime between Emerald and ORAS, originalshipping - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-30
Updated: 2019-08-30
Packaged: 2020-09-30 17:40:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20450996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Menoeides/pseuds/Menoeides
Summary: Red can’t even begin to list all the things he loves about Green, but he appreciates every single one of them as they come anyway.





	Through Rose-Tinted Lenses

Red has to admit, he kind of misses the times when Green would wear a turtleneck all year round. They made him look like a Kalosian model even at age fourteen, in Red's opinion, and even if he’s more of a T-shirt guy himself, he has eyes, at least.

But when he brings it up, Green actually looks _ embarrassed_. From Red’s vantage point from being wrapped around Green behind the couch, he has a front row seat of the way his boyfriend very pointedly does not look at him. He also gets a mouthful of hair as Green turns his head, but it happens to both of them too often for him to do anything more than discreetly let it drop back out. 

“I liked it,” he says, hugging Green even tighter. “Remember that purple one? The sweater paws were cute.”

Green grumbles something that might have been “Shut up,” or “I did _ not _ have sweater paws,” but what he ends up saying more clearly is, “I don’t know if I should be offended, given your taste.”

Red pauses in his squeezing, cheek smushed against the side of Green’s head. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Pants with flames on them don’t look good.” Green’s definitely laughing at him. Red can’t see his face, but the way Green’s voice catches in his throat and warms in the air leaves no doubt about it.

“Hey,” Red protests, even though he kind of regrets those pants too. Gold had nearly gone out and bought himself the same pair. “They weren’t that bad. Yellow said they looked fine.”

“Yellow’s been wearing the same thing for five years,” Green says.

And Red can’t really argue with that, so he changes tactics by vaulting over the back of the couch. Green barely has enough time to uncross his legs before Red lands on top of him with a quiet _ oof_.

Green closes his eyes and leans back as Red gets situated, scrambling to face his boyfriend. He takes a moment to appreciate the glow that the afternoon washes over Green, almost as if he’s going to dissolve into sunlight if Red looks away for too long. 

He has his eyes on the prize like he’s back at the Pokemon Tournament Championship when they were eleven, except this time, he takes the time to savor his victory.

A thought hits him. It doesn’t seem like Green’s returning to his turtlenecks any time soon.

Although, he thinks as he presses kisses down the line of Green's throat, the switch to open collars hasn't been much of a loss either.

\--

When they were eleven, Green’s smirks made Red want to punch him in the face, unless they weren’t directed at him, in which case his chest would start to feel all fluttery. But most of the time, they were, and Red has never been one to hold back his urges, so he tried to punch Green on two different occasions.

Then the Pokemon League Championship happened, and Red thought that smirk was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

He didn’t realize how _ cool _ and _ stoic _ Green had gotten, not when he’s started receiving smiles instead of smirks, smiles of relief and exasperation and affection that he lets make up his entire world. 

In fact, he doesn’t realize it until years later, when Gold comes over to Red’s house to complain. Gold makes himself at home, as usual, and Red gets comfortable, more than happy to listen to the younger boy talk and offer his own opinions. 

“How’d someone like you become friends with Green anyway?” Gold asks from where he’s laying belly-down on the bed, voice skimming the surface of the sheets. “It feels like he wouldn’t even give you the time of day, y’know?”

Red shrugs. “It’s not like we were friends at first sight or anything. We just felt like we had to be better than each other.” That, and they’d run into each other too many times to not build their weird rivalry-friendship, but he thinks it’s implied.

“Man, come with me to Viridian sometime and soften him up, will ya? He’s so pissed all the time.”

“Not that much,” Red says before he can process what Gold’s saying, but even as the words leave his mouth, he’s not sure they’re quite right. “He’s just… smug.”

Gold squints at him. “You’re saying he’s _ smug _ when he glares like that?”

“No, no!” He laughs to fill empty space as he tries to collect what he knows and put them into words. The more he thinks, the more he feels like he's not making sense. “He’s… Well, he’s grumpy, sure, but not mad or anything. It’s more about that smirk he’s got when he knows something you don’t, you know?”

There’s no response, so he looks over at the bed, and Gold’s on his back now, mouth agape, before he shakes his head and moves on to complain about (gush over) the work the daycare makes him do.

And Red forgets to ask Green about it when they see each other the next day, and he keeps on forgetting until he remembers a couple weeks later, but he still doesn’t ask. 

All he sees are smiles softer than he’s seen on anyone else and light flushes dusted across Green’s cheeks, and Red lets himself drink in the sight, as if he doesn’t get the chance to see this every day, as if it’ll disappear as soon as he blinks. 

And oh, he realizes, he hasn’t seen Green smirk recently either, has he?

\--

It’s almost become a game at this point. Green always refuses the first time Red asks. There’s no hesitation, no consideration, just an arched eyebrow that doesn’t have nearly as much of an effect on Red as it does on anyone else.

It’s what Red likes to call the “Try again” look. So he does, because Green isn’t walking away and both of them have seen this exact scenario play out more than enough times for them to know how it ends. 

“Ride on the bike with me,” he repeats. It’s selfish, he knows, what he’s asking for, because they can just as easily fly on their own Pokemon and save themselves both the time and the hassle. It’s what Green’s thinking too, Red can tell, but not once has he said no, not even after the time they’d ended up in a river when the bike went over a bump on the bridge.

So Red continues to press, easy and unrelenting, and Green continues to not-quite-deny him just enough for any other person to consider giving up. But it’s Red, and he wouldn’t be himself if he were so easily deterred, wouldn’t have waited so many years for Green to return the feelings neither of them knew were there.

Green gives in with a sigh, and Red grins, swinging one leg over the seat of the bicycle as he waits for Green to get on behind him.

The two of them barely fit. Red sits as far forward as he can; he absolutely refuses to let Green hang off the back, because it’s not Green’s fault that the only place to sit is the actual seat. Besides, doing that would probably break some sort of boyfriend code, he thinks, and he really doesn’t want that to happen.

But maybe he doesn’t have anything to worry about, because he’s pretty sure Green can’t even see the thoughts written across his face when he huffs out a quiet breath and wraps his arms around Red’s waist. 

“Go ahead,” he says, and Red has to fight back the urge to twist around to look at his boyfriend. Still, he doesn’t bother to hide the grin on his face, not when Green rests his head against Red’s, their hair soaked in light tinged red and gold by the leaves.

It’s selfish, Red knows, but when he can feel Green’s warmth pressed up against his back, a few strands of hair tickling the back of his neck, he can’t find a reason not to ask again and again.

\--

It’s not often that Green goes to bed first. Even without paperwork to fill out for the Gym, he’s more than happy, even when Red’s around, to stay up late and read. Red’s gotten used to falling asleep, stirring only to fling an arm around an added weight that makes the bed dip under him.

But today is one of those rare days when Green is just about to fall asleep on his own couch. Red can’t stop his heart from squeezing in his chest every time Green’s head droops, every time he shifts to remind himself that he should be awake when Red uses his lap as a pillow.

“Go to bed,” he says as he sits up and swings his legs back around. He could watch Green doze off all day and never get bored, but it’s late enough that Green can actually go to bed instead of taking a nap on the couch.

It’s a real testament to how tired Green is when he doesn’t argue, using his last vestiges of energy to pull himself to his feet and stagger toward the bedroom. And Red’s to sit there by himself, to decide whether or not to fly back to Pallet Town. It doesn’t take him very long to choose.

Green’s already asleep when Red slips into the room, raising his side’s corner of the covers so he can slide underneath. Even in the near-dark, he can see the sheets rise and fall, creased by the streetlights outside.

He takes a moment to appreciate Green, soft and unguarded in a way he never is when he’s awake, to watch the hair splayed across the pillow shift as Green curls in on himself, and Red wraps his arms around him and just—breathes, lets himself pinpoint this exact moment that he gets to spend with his boyfriend, frozen in the dim light filtering through the window. It’s warm, Red thinks, the line of Green’s back against his chest, and he nuzzles against his boyfriend’s shoulder to make sure that all this is real, not a fantasy he’s been entertaining since they were eleven.

Green shifts, pressing back into the embrace. Red can feel his own breath ruffling Green’s hair as he lets his eyes slip shut. No matter how many times they do this, he refuses to let a single memory slip away.

**Author's Note:**

> And now for some fluff! I wrote this while I was writing [We're Fire Waiting for a Spark](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19865416) because I needed the assurance that Green could end up happy, and it turned into these four tiny snippets of lovestruck Red
> 
> Also I don’t think Green actually had sweater paws, Red and I just like to dream
> 
> Again, find me here to talk about stuff!  
[Twitter](https://twitter.com/menoeides)  
[Tumblr](https://aimless-thoughts-piling-up.tumblr.com)


End file.
